Interview with Delmanor Prince Edward management, Whitney Hilts

My job is unique in that I am always the bringer of fun, good news, and happiness. One thing that I really love about my job is that there’s so much positivity surrounding what I do.

In LivingWell™, we really get the opportunity to get to know our residents, to really delve into their past, their present, and what they would like to do in the future. We get to help them accomplish things that they might not normally get to accomplish if they were at home. One more thing that I absolutely love is that I get to experience it with them. That is an added perk of the job, that I get to live my life through their stories and through their history, and it really shapes how I live my life day to day.

Our LivingWell™ program is a trademarked program. It’s really our signature calling card that sets us apart from all the competition, and it really is a program that encompasses your mind, your body, your spirit, and it really aims to engage each of our residents and to make every day worth living. It is to increase their quality of life or maintain the high quality of life that they are bringing into our building.

Whether that is starting a new hobby or continuing with your love of art, learning new skills, or traveling, we love to provide opportunities to travel around the city and the Greater Toronto Area. That’s really what our LivingWell™ department stands for. It’s also about allowing residents the opportunity to stay within their comfort zone if that’s what they choose, and we bring people into them.

We bring in the instructors, we bring in university professors to lecture, so we are really able to keep them stimulated day to day. It’s completely based on their own interests, but it also opens their eyes to new things that maybe they might not have thought of before. So we’re really the ones that organize that, facilitate those programs, and give them that outlet that they might be looking for.

I actually started as a volunteer in high school doing my 40 hours community service work. I started in long-term care as a lot of us have, and I knew from the moment that I started there that working with seniors and older adults is really where my heart lay. So I went through school and I became a LivingWell Manager and then eventually took on the corporate role. 

It’s such a wonderful company to work for. They really promote from within, and honestly, the way that I love my job really shows in everything that I do every day.

Aside from all of our highly qualified LivingWell team members, we are constantly getting further education. We are certified Urban Poling instructors, and we are BoneFit certified, and we get certified through all different organizations that relate to aging and seniors. So that makes us stand apart from a lot of other places.

We also have a LivingWell Coach, which I think a lot of our competition does not offer. Our LivingWell Coach travels from community to community, so she’s there one day a week. What she focuses on is one-to-one coaching, setting goals, and working together. It’s exercise, it’s mental, it’s emotional support if that’s what they’re looking for.

I really think that that’s what sets us apart because you’re able to build those relationships, which is so important, especially when you’re moving in somewhere for the first time. You may not know anyone, you may be grasping at trying to find your place in the community, and our LivingWell team, along with the assistance of our LivingWell Coach, can really help you find your groove.

It goes back to the old adage, you use it or you lose it. I think it really just encourages everyone to use what they have. We want to keep you mentally sharp, physically fit, spiritually connected if that’s what you’d like to do, and we also want to support you emotionally. That’s why it’s so important that we acknowledge the entire body when we’re planning our monthly calendars.

It’s often a difficult transition, but we’ve done everything we can to make that as smooth as possible. We have a roster of our residents that we call our resident ambassadors, and they are actually like our welcoming committee. They will meet with the new resident when they arrive, and they’ll kind of form a buddy system.

They’ll knock on their door, invite them to programs, walk down to dinner with them, and we also leave their number in their suite so that if they can’t figure out that washing machine down the hall, they’re going to be able to call that phone number and they’re going to have a friendly face, someone that’s been through it before. It’s really important to have peers instead of necessarily team members helping. It takes a lot of the pressure off people moving in.

We do a monthly calendar of events. Each month we have a calendar planning meeting where we invite as many of our residents as possible to join together at one table and just throw out what they want to do. We kind of start off the meeting by saying, what do you want to do next month? We will literally put anything that they want on that calendar. They can dictate anything that we do.

We invite family members to attend that as well. We often get emails from family members saying, "You know what, Mom really wants to go to a knitting store in Bradford, can your bus go there within the next month?" And it’s on there. We rely so much on their feedback because, at the end of the day, if they’re not putting their input into it and they don’t want to come to the program, we have nothing to do. We want them to be excited and participating. So we’ll do anything we can to get them coming to our programs.

We have lots of residents who are self-proclaimed introverts, and they say, "You know what, I’ve done things my whole life. Now is my time to rest and relax." That's absolutely fine. That is their right. But that does not mean that we will ever stop knocking at their door or picking up the phone to call them. They have every right to say no, but we’re never going to stop trying to get them involved.

We respect everyone’s decision whether or not they want to participate. Coming down for an Oktoberfest celebration is not for everybody, but we will try to get to know that resident better. We will spend time with them one-on-one, and we will give them little care packages. We often have readers or avid crossword puzzle people that we will actually go online, print off resources, and deliver them packages so that they have something to do from the comfort of their own suites.

A couple of our most active residents have approached me and said, if I didn’t have your exercise classes and your lectures to look forward to to get me through the day, I don’t even know how I would get through it. It gets very isolating [this interview was during the pandemic -- ed]. It’s very lonely for those who aren’t naturally go-getters and aren’t naturally joiners.

We hear stories every day about thanking us and thanking all the LivingWell teams at all the Delmanors for really just being there and providing an outlet and some friendly conversation, if nothing else. So it’s such a rewarding program, and it’s such a rewarding position.

I’ve been with Delmanor for 11 years now, and when I originally started, technology was not a huge part of our day-to-day programming. Anything that we were really doing was more pen and paper. I have really seen the need and the eagerness from our residents to adopt technology, to really embrace it, and to learn. They’re voracious learners.

They want to teach me how to use my tablet, teach me how to use Facebook, teach me how to do a Zoom call, which we’ve been doing so much of over the last few months. There are so many things that have changed from 10 or 11 years ago. We are always trying to keep on top of the trends. We are always trying to stay ahead of the curve in a diverse and ever-changing world.

I think we are so adaptable because we’re there every day with them. If something changes, we’re right there alongside them. It’s not like we have to wait months to catch up to where we need to be. If video calls are what we need to spend six hours of our eight-hour day on, then video calls is what we’re going to spend six hours of our eight-hour day on.

We are completely adaptable, and I think that’s changed a lot. This generation of seniors wants to learn, and we are willing to give them every opportunity to learn.

Seniors who are moving into our communities are a lot more active than they used to be because people are living in their homes longer. They’re living longer, healthier in their own homes. So they’re coming into Delmanor now, younger and more active. We’ve had to adapt a lot of our programs to a much more independent, active, vibrant population than we ever have before.

That means we may not just offer a fitness class. We’re going to need to offer Zumba, yoga, laughter yoga, and ballet. We really have to expand what normally would have been a very narrow focus. We do a lot more research, a lot more expanding on a single idea that we might have focused on previously.

At each Delmanor community, we have between eight and ten programs going on a day. They usually start at around 9 o’clock, and they go right through till 9 o’clock at night. And if it’s a really good party, it’ll go even later than 9 o’clock.

I still think there is a preconceived notion that you’re going to come in and see people sleeping in our lounge. That just doesn’t happen. These people are ready or want to continue living their lives. They may not be able to take care of their own homes anymore. They may need assistance with medication management, but that does not mean that they want to stop living the life that they used to.

We give them those opportunities and those outlets to continue doing those things that they’ve always loved to do. They are having probably more fun than you and I are on a daily basis. They all go from room to room in the evenings, and they play cards. It really is a fun, welcoming environment, and that’s what everyone needs to know about it. It’s meant to be your home, and we do everything we can to make it that way.

We call that The Delmanor Experience. To get the most out of The Delmanor Experience, we are fully adaptable to any sort of care level that might be appropriate for living in our communities. We do absolutely have the opportunity. We have nursing staff always on duty, medication management, and the meals are always included.

If there is a higher level of care, what we’ll end up doing in the LivingWell™ department specifically is offering variations of programs that are going on. We may have a Zumba where they’re dancing at 10 o’clock, but at 11 o’clock, we’re going to have a seated fitness class. We know the scope of what our residents are capable and able to do.

We’re able to offer a variety. We might have an art class come in one day, and the next might be something more tactile and clay-based for those who might struggle visually or have visual impairment. We’re able to modify and adapt any and all of our programs to make them work for every possible care level that we accept in the community.

One of our gentlemen was a firefighter, and he’s just a wonderful, wonderful man. He used to whittle and do woodworking with his father when he was younger. Well, enter Delmanor Prince Edward. We have a woodworking studio, and didn’t he just pick it up again! He started making tiny little wooden puppets and ended up donating them to SickKids Hospital. 

It was such an amazing story in how we were able to bring that out of him because it had long lain dormant. He got busy doing his work and raising his family, but when he had some time on his hands, he was able to slow down and rediscover a passion of his that he absolutely loved, and now everyone has benefited from him. So it’s such a great story.

It’s really important to remember that the LivingWell™ team is there to increase your quality of life. We’re there to enhance all of the things that you were living outside of Delmanor. We want you to continue those coming in. If that means gardening was your passion at home, and we need to transplant part of your garden into our backyard, that’s something that we have done and would do again.

The sky’s the limit. No one should feel like they’re coming in and they’re losing. They're gaining! We want them to gain family, and we want them to make Delmanor their home.

Especially from a LivingWell™ perspective, I would say: Ask to see a monthly calendar because you can really get a good snapshot of what the community is doing by looking at that calendar. Are they going out on the bus? Are they really experiencing the community? Is there a good variety of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual programs on the calendar? Does it look like your family member or loved one can be busy during the day if they choose?

When in doubt, I would honestly pick up the phone and speak to the LivingWell Manager, and you will honestly have your ear talked off, and you’ll come out of that with so much more information and be so much more well-informed that you’ll probably want to move in yourself.